EU looks into reintroducing animal remains in farm feed

BRUSSELS, BELGIUM — The European Union Commission is funding a study to determine whether animal bonemeal should be allowed back into the diet of farm animals for the first time since a 2000 ban was implemented in response to an incurable disease that attacks the brain.

A ban on cannibalism will remain in place, commission spokesman Philip Tod told reporters in late May, meaning that pigs may be allowed to eat chicken bonemeal, but not the remains of another pig.

The commission addressed the feed issue after the London Times reported it was spending $2.3 million on research to allow the remains of pigs and chickens to be used as fodder.

The practice was banned by the European Union in 2000 after an outbreak of bovine spongiform encephalopathy in Europe, blamed for infecting hundreds of people with the human version, the incurable variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease. Like mad cow disease, it causes a wasting of brain cells and is untreatable.

Backed by the commission's research fund, the study's top priority is to maintain public health and food safety, Tod says.